Written by an employee of Cisco and published as part of the Cisco Press range it should come as no surprise that the solutions presented in this book to the issues raised are based around Cisco products.

Touching on a number of hot topics, under the umbrella of “The Borderless Network” – which the author later expands on to require “a movement of openness in the Enterprise” – some of the topics covered include the consumerization of IT, cloud computing, identity management and the challenges now and in the future of supporting Generation X/Y employees in the workplace.

Throughout, the author clearly speaks with hands-on experience acquired during the two decades he has spent in the Infosec field and challenges the usefulness of traditional security methods and what he describes as the outdated and increasingly unrealistic “Culture of No.”Continued »

Hankering for a good IT-related book to read this summer? Head over to Matt Heusser’s blog, Unchartered Waters, for Part 1 of a two-part review and interview with Andy Lester, author of Land the Tech Job You Love.

This book is right on the money: well-organized and written in easy-to-understand language. Each question and answer is fully explained. SOA implementation is not an easy or simple to understand process, but the authors allow the reader to feel comfortable with SOA. The structure of the book captured and kept my attention, to the very last question. I would highly recommend this book to any CTO or IT college student. This book is a great and informational read, whether for technical or non-technical readers.

This is an excellent, well-written, easy-to-read and -understand operational guide with practical tips and ideas for a new generation of IT manager. New ideas and technology quickly change concepts in IT systems management, and this book is up to date on the current ideas and technology. It would be a great desk reference for IT managers.

Even students, future IT managers, would benefit from using this as a text book, as it offers real life examples relevant to the IT systems management and mainframe environment, including legacy systems. I trust the most important benefit of this book is that it will help reduce your IT operational costs and, if properly comprehended, will give the reader the ability to use new technology to manage IT systems more efficiently and effectively.

We have some great titles sitting on our bookshelves, just waiting to be read and reviewed. If you’re interested in receiving an IT book for review, please contact me at Melanie@ITKnowledgeExchange.com for more information. Peruse our most recent titles to see if anything strikes your fancy. Contact me for a full list of available titles.

1. Scalability Rules: 50 Principles for Scaling Web Sites: Filed under “web programming,” this is a great reference for “every architect, developer, web professional, and manager.” Whether you’re experiencing hypergrowth in a front end or back end system, Martin Abbott and Michael Fisher’s book can provide you with 50 rules for scalability and practical guides for application.

Pages: 245 Publisher: Addison-Wesley/Pearson Education

2. Building Applications in the Cloud: Filed under “cloud computing,” this title will help you “use cloud architectural patterns that deliver superior performance, scalability, and availability…whether you’re building new solutions or adapting existing code.” Christopher Moyer demonstrates the “Design Patterns” format through code and case study applications for Python and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Pages: 296 Publisher: Addison-Wesley/Pearson Education

3. DTrace: Dynamic Tracing in Oracle Solaris, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD: The DTrace feature in Oracle Solaris has changed operating systems and application debugging. This book can serve as your “comprehensive, authoritative guide” to using DTrace in any supported UNIX environment including Oracle Solaris, OpenSolaris, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD.

About This Blog

This blog is dedicated to providing members with a wide selection of free sample chapters from relevant enterprise IT and development books. Each entry includes related resources for additional help. Be forewarned, some chapters may have limited availability – so get them while you can. Enjoy!